There have been several promotions and team reorganizations recently, including the promotion of Jen Warfield to vice president, independent distribution, and of Carey Earle to AVP, Branding.
Here are the individual announcements.
From Louis Puglisi:
As Independent Distribution grows, so does our talent who supports it. I am pleased to announce the following:
Jen Warfield is promoted from Sr. Director to Vice President, Independent Distribution. Jen joined our team over 10 years ago and was officially the first Key Account at the company. Jen has been instrumental in helping our largest life insurance agency grow at a healthy rapid pace. I attribute Jen’s success to her work ethic and varied background, which includes underwriting, compliance, licensing, and communications. Jen recently earned her CFP and is currently President of the Philadelphia Tri County Chapter of Women in Financial Services.
Song Li is promoted from Key Account Associate to Key Account Representative, Independent Distribution. Song joined the company in 2015 as an Internal Sales Associate and Internal Asian Market Specialist before transitioning to his current position. He played a key role in the significant growth of the Multicultural market and helped the Chinese market increase the Life sales by more than 250% in the last three years. Song received a Bachelor’s degree in China and a Master’s degree in Operations Management from the University of Arkansas.
Neandre Broussard will join Independent Distribution as a Key Account Representative. Neandre joined National Life Group in September 2014 as an Internal Sales Associate on the TX Sales Desk. In April 2016, Neandre transitioned from Distribution to Marketing to serve as Marketing Manager primarily supporting the 403(b)/457(b) side of our business, including revamping product materials, working directly with product development and conducting 403/457(b) certified classes across the county. As his role expanded, he led the efforts to strengthen our position in the multicultural marketplace in both Life and Annuity business. As Neandre returns to Distribution, he brings a wealth of knowledge of how our company operates for our buying and selling clients.
From David Longfritz:
We went through a successful rebranding effort a few years ago, and we have a “Main Street” brand persona that resonates with key audiences and stakeholders. We’re looking to build upon that brand, take it to more targeted audiences, and begin to pilot and test direct to consumer viral and digital campaigns. We’re not looking to rebrand but to leverage the terrific brand we have.
To make certain we continue to execute and leverage the benefits of our brand and our Cause, Corporate Communications and Marketing and Retirement Services are teaming up to form a new branding team. The team will be led by Carey Earle and will report to me with a dotted line to Chris Graff. Of note, this is not an agile team, but is a permanent new function and focus for Marketing and Retirement Services. Carey is the perfect leader for this effort. Before joining us, Carey ran her own boutique advertising agency in NYC, and began her career on Madison Avenue serving many Fortune 500 brands. Since joining NLG, Carey has been intimately involved in many key touchpoints that bring our brand to life: our conferences, marketing and branding field training, the promotion of Cause, the Culture team, the WIN initiative and the development of our field kick-off decks each year. In her new role, Carey will be promoted to AVP, Branding.
In addition, I am excited to announce other key members of the new Branding Team.
Maria McLendon will join the team as Director, Branding. Maria has been with the company five years focused on our Retirement business where she has quickly learned our products and distribution. Importantly, Maria has shown special skills in being a passionate ambassador and face of the NLG brand. Her communication work with our key IMO partners, our Certified class, and LifeChanger has been both enthusiastic and articulate.
Megan Hand will join the team as Marketing Manager, Branding. Megan has been focused on talking with our clients for more than two years now. Megan is the driving force behind our Main Street Blog which has had two articles which have won awards and several articles which have been published in industry magazines. Megan was also involved in a lead generation program that hit goal of 560 leads for 2017, and importantly, is currently at a run rate of 20 leads/week.
Darryl Garland will join the team full time in a cross-functional role while still being part of Corporate Communications. Darryl has been a creative force at National Life Group, especially Sentinel investments for the past 10 years. Darryl has a special skill of always trying to peel back another layer of the onion to get to the core of what motivates and communicates with the target audience.
One of the terrific aspects of this team is that they have all been working on our brand already in their current roles. They will bring many, if not most, of their projects with them to the new Branding team. It is then their challenge to determine which initiatives should be emphasized over others, and to identify what new initiatives need to be started. They will not be without resources…money has been set aside in the 2018 budget to engage an advertising and digital agency for a targeted engagement focused on digital communication. We will also have a digital consultant, Bill Webster, join the team on January 3rd on a three month assignment. Bill most recently worked at AXA where he was the Managing Director of Brand Evolution and gained valuable experience learning how to leverage digital and social media tools to build a brand in a targeted and efficient manner.
Finally, joining this permanent team will be agile members Mallorie Manosh and Ross Sneyd for the first targeted segment of the team, millennial teachers. It is important to get all of the “branding minds” in the building together to kick this new team off with momentum. Mallorie and Ross bring terrific experience and ideas to the table. Their work on LifeChanger and Main Streets Across America has leveraged digital and social media tools and has been extremely successful.
National Life Group is a mission-driven and purposed-filled business. For the people who work at NLG, the cause of what we do is as important as the insurance and annuity products that we sell. As the fastest growing life insurance company in America, the National Life Group cause is a very simple one: to do good in our communities and with the individual families we serve.
From Marie Lemieux:
I am pleased to announce that Lindsay Thompson will be joining the bank distribution channel as Bank Channel Relationship Manager. Lindsay’s experience prior to joining NLG includes leading internal teams in support of bank distribution. She joined NLG 2 years ago as Manager of the Vermont Sales Desk. In that role, one of her responsibilities was to participate in and represent the sales desk in the weekly bank initiative meetings. She has a strong understanding of what it takes to generate business in that channel and no doubt will be a tremendous asset to the bank team. Her contributions while on the desk have helped to create an internal team with sharper selling skills as well as more efficient processes. While I’m sad to see her leave the sales desk, I am excited for her in her new role and the opportunities it presents for her.
I am also pleased to announce that Tracy King will be assuming the role 
of Manager, VT Sales Desk. Tracy joined NLG 4 ½ years ago as an Internal Sales Associate on the Vermont Sales Desk. From there she moved into a role with the Marketing Department as a Marketing Manager supporting Independent Life Distribution, the Middle Market, the Bank Channel, and Product Marketing. She has made significant content contributions including several videos (both agent and consumer facing), authored numerous blog posts and has been published in Brokers World and Insurance News Net. She has strong knowledge of our products, processes, and distribution channels in addition to having strong relationship-building skills. We look forward to Tracy joining our team and helping to take the sales desk to new levels.
The effective date of these changes is February 4th. I hope you will all join me in congratulating both Lindsay Thompson and Tracy King in their new roles.